The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Journalist Association of Bhutan (JAB) has moved up a notch to achieve its goals after signing a MoU with department of information and media (DOIM), last Thursday.
This comes as a result of JAB’s proposal to both DOIM and BMF for assistance in establishing its office and a press club.
The DOIM has now approved Nu 0.7mn to JAB for the establishment of its office. Earlier this week at the media stakeholder meeting, the executive director of Bhutan media foundation (BMF), Lilly Wangchuck said that certain amount of funds have been set aside by BMF to facilitate JAB to build its foundation.
The journalist association’s general secretary Kinley Tshering said though initially JAB proposed BMF for funds to meet two year’s recurrent expenditures, BMF highlighted the importance of building a strong foundation for JAB in its response.
The Nu 0.7mn fund to be received within this month will be used to purchase office equipment and furniture among others. Part of the fund will also be used as legal fees to register JAB as a civil society organization (CSO).
The general secretary said, of the many mandates of JAB, it will also hugely focus to facilitate trainings for media personnel organized by other training agencies. Representatives of JAB, DOIM and BMF will meet soon to discuss human resources development and funds among others.
After almost five years in the making, JAB was formally established on February 7 this year with the election of a president and eight other office bearers..
The association has started works on its logo and website and it will formally register all its members very soon with minimum registration fees.
